To keep pace with that growth, Brazil’s capacity to produce energy must increase by 50 percent over the next decade, government planners say — in line with a target set by rapidly growing China, and even faster than what is projected for Russia and India, two similarly sized, energy-hungry emerging economies.

In Brazil, wind will play a vital role: The aim by 2021 is to have Brazil rely on wind turbines for up to 10 percent of its generating capacity — nearly enough to power São Paulo, South America’s largest city.

It’s an expansion that planners believe makes perfect sense, allowing Brazil to avoid an energy crisis like the one in 2001 — when drought led to nationwide blackouts — while diversifying with a new source of power that is far cheaper and more efficient than it was just five years ago.

“Wind is the perfect complement for the hydro base that we have in Brazil,” said Mathias Becker, president of Renova Energia, a São Paulo wind energy company founded 12 years ago with $5,000 and now worth nearly $1.5 billion. “When it rains, we don’t have wind. When the wind blows, there is no rain.”